Gibbiot

I received the following email from the FairFuelUK campaign (of which I am a member).  I can’t make it on the 7th March, but I thought I’d reproduce the email here in case someone else can:

Dear FairFuelUK Supporter,

Already, hundreds of our supporters have said that they will be joining us on 7^th March at a mass lobby of Parliament, but we need hundreds more to make a big impact, so please join us.

• If you work in a business, perhaps the management would allow you to come as a representative of the firm?  If you own the firm, perhaps you could come along and join the many other entrepreneurs who want to say to the Government that ‘enough is enough’ and that the economy desperately needs a cut in fuel duty
• It might be that you work in the voluntary sector.  Why not get a group of your fellow volunteers together so that you can share travel costs?  We know that many charities and voluntary groups are really being hit hard by the high costs of petrol and diesel
• It might be that you live in a rural area.  So many people in remote areas have no choice about using their cars and so suffer so much more than others as petrol/diesel goes up.  Why not get a group together from your parish council or from your village?
• You might work in the logistics industry as I still do.  With many trucks only just managing 8 mpg the hauliers and freight companies of Britain are really under the cosh
• If you work in a trade association or a Chamber of Commerce, perhaps you could spread word of the event across your membership and ask them to send representatives

Whatever you do, wherever you live PLEASE join us on the 7^th March if at all possible. 

With your help, the FairFuelUK campaign achieved the major success last year of fending off 9p in fuel duty rises.  Now, with your help, we need to fight for an actual cut in fuel duty.

Opportunities to make our case in such a powerful way don’t come often.  Please help us by attending on the 7^th March and making it a great success.  Full details and how to let us know you are coming are here at http://www.fairfueluk.com/nationalfairfuelday.html

Thanks to the hundreds of supporters who responded to our call to buy a campaign sticker and help us get our message all across the roads and motorways of Britain.  A massive showing of ‘sticker support’ helps boost the campaign and helps raise the funds to keep it going.  Why not buy some now….. http://bit.ly/FFUKStickers. 

We only have 42 days to the Budget.  If we work together like we did last year, we can make a massive difference….

Very kind regards,

Peter Carroll
and the FairFuelUK Team

Courtesy of a colleague’s joke-a-day calendar:

A burglar breaks into a house and is quietly and expertly collecting valuables in his bag when he hears a voice call, “Jesus is watching you.”

Startled, he looks around the room but there doesn’t seem to be anyone there, so he carries on stashing the valuables into his bag. Just as he’s struggling to pick up the TV he hears the voice again. “Jesus is watching you.”

He looks around the room again, only this time more thoroughly, and he spies a parrot in a cage. “Are you Jesus then?” Asks the burglar.

“No,” the bird calmly responds, “I’m Moses.”

The thief is most amused. “What sort of people would call their parrot Moses?” He asks, barely suppressing a laugh.

“The same sort of people that would call a Rottweiler Jesus!” Replies the parrot.

…fortunately Mr Ban Ki-Moon is on the case. He even emailed me:

From: Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary General (UNITED NATIONS).
United Nations Headquarters,
760 United Nations Plaza, New York,
NY 10017, USA

Dear Beneficiary.

How are you and the family, we got your email notification about your dealings with some kind of scammers which you are not suppose to deal with at all regarding your transfer, you have been dealing with this people for a long time while they are not in position to pay you your fund, this people have extracted a lot of money from you and at the end you get nothing,

However, it may interest you to know that the people you have been dealing with are not even in the banking system, but because they are aware of your existing amount, they are now using It to deal with you, I advise that you stop every further contact if you are still receiving any email or telephone calls from them, because dealing with them will not help this office to investigate or transfer your funds to you by the appropriate office, you should stop every further contact with these people because you won’t get anything in return because they are pretenders so for your own good you are advised to stop and concentrate to the office that we are going to initiate for the payment of your fund as it is ready to be wired, and for your own interest I advise that you respond to this email as soon as you get it so that we can proceed immediately without any further delays.

Furthermore, I also want you to understand that you have not been dealing with the right office as they will only deceive you because they can’t pay you anything, and be advised that a transaction of this magnitude will take some little expenditure which you are responsible as the rightful beneficiary,

We are working in collaborations with the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) and have decided to waive away all your clearance fees/Charges and authorize the Government of United state to effect the payment of your compensation of an amount of $10.3M approved by both World bank and the United Nation into your account without any delay. The only fee you will pay to confirm your fund in your account is Insurrance Clearance fee.

In view of the above you are advised to provide the information below to enable us begin the process of transferring your funds.

1) Your Full Names………………………………………………
2) Phone, Fax and Mobile ………………………………………
3) Company’s Name, Position and Address…………………
4) Profession, Age and Marital Status…………………………

Making the world a better place

Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary General (UNITED NATIONS).
United Nations Headquarters,
760 United Nations Plaza, New York,
NY 10017, USA

Naturally I replied immediately. I’m looking forward to my $10.3m.

Warning: The following post is about an adult theme and contains strong language. You have been warned.

For a little while now I’ve been reading the blog of The Custody Sgt. On Thursday he blogged about the execution of Troy Davis, and about the death penalty in general. I was going to post the following as a comment on his blog, but I realised that, actually, it’s a blog post in itself. So here’s what I have to say:

I am not a religious person[1] but I like to think that, at the very least, my morals are intact. So while I don’t know of anyone who’s come back from the dead, I do agree with everything else in his post.

(Actually, that’s not true, the Renault 5 was always guilty.)

I understand the “one of our own” thinking. In a job like policing, your colleagues become much, much closer than in other jobs. You literally depend on each other and when one gets killed it’s like someone has murdered a member of your family. That said, I applaud The Custody Sgt for thinking his way out of that (which wasn’t supposed to sound as patronising as it does!).

The thing is, killing is wrong! It doesn’t matter who does it, or for what cause. (I understand that, in certain circumstances — such as military conflict — it’s deemed necessary. I still don’t claim that it’s right, though.) The death penalty suffers from the fundamental issue of its finality.

A Facebook friend of mine recently opened this topic up for discussion. I was quite surprised at the number of people who were for the re-introduction of the death penalty in the UK. Their main arguments were:

1. it would serve as an active deterrent — if you kill then expect to be killed,

2. it would only be applied in cases where we were absolutely certain that the person being executed was guilty and

3. if you were the family of the victim, you’d want justice to be done.

So, let’s take each of those points…

1. It would serve as an active deterrent.

Would it? Really? I’m not a criminal psychologist, but I think I’m pretty safe in suggesting that people who kill other people aren’t really thinking about their long-term plans. I’m fairly sure they’re not thinking, “if I kill this dude I’ll probably only get 10-15 and actually be out after 7.” My money’s on them thinking something closer to, “AAAARGH, FUCKING CUNT! MUST KILL!” Or they might be thinking, “ooh, kill the kid. How does that feel?” My point, just in case you didn’t get it already, is that the people who kill other people don’t tend to be particularly rational, and even if they are they’re not overly concerned about the outcome.

For an example, look at the US. They have the death penalty in 37 states and yet the instance of homicide, per capita, is higher than in the UK. So evidently, as a deterrent, it doesn’t work. This is compounded by point 2.

2. It would only be applied in cases where we were absolutely certain that the person being executed was guilty.

For a start, that’s simply not a statement that can be backed up. Who are “we”? In the recent Troy Davis case, “we” were the juries at the several trials he went through. “We” were the supreme court. And yet “we” sentenced him to death because, according to Twitter at least (if I find a more reliable source I’ll update this post), “the case has gone on for too long.” Was there 100% proof that he was guilty? No. Could “we” be absolutely certain that he was guilty? No.

“But of course, that wouldn’t happen over here.” Why not? You might not have made that decision, but you won’t be making them here, either. I think this tweet, from @Claire_Phipps, says it all:

“Still trying to decipher Priti Patel’s view that death penalty works as deterrent for innocent people for crimes they didn’t commit”

3. If you were the family of the victim, you’d want justice to be done.

Yes, I would…I absolutely would…I’d be baying for blood! That’s why you won’t find me on the jury. Fortunately we have a justice system where the people responsible for ascertaining guilt and for doling out punishment are not the family of the victim. By being a member of the victim’s family you are automatically put into a biased position.

The whole thing is a crock of shit. In killing Troy Davis, what have we achieved? We might, maybe, have killed a murderer. We’re not sure that we have, though. Even if we had, what’s changed? He was already in prison. The only thing we’ve achieved is the regression of society. With a bit of luck, we’ll come out the other end with a bit more realisation and understanding, though sadly I doubt it. And what of the executor? Surely (s)he is guilty of first degree murder? Of course not, because “the government” (which, I might add, is nothing more than a collection of people) said it’s ok.

So there we go. That’s my opinion. It’s meandering…lacking in any sort of direction, but it has a point. It has a goal, a destination.

You’re welcome, of course, to disagree with what I’ve written here. After all, it’s only my opinion. I think you’ll find I’m right, though.

[1] I’m not a particularly religious person, but I do share some opinions with different religions. I’ll blog about one in particular at a later date.

Right, first up: this has nothing to do with that thing which appeared in the mid-90s and involved a piece of string, two sticks and an hourglass-shaped block of wood.  Nor is it the name of anything that your doctor should be concerned with (thanks for that, mum).  This post is about Diabloskinz and my experience with them as a customer.

In the interest of disclosure, let’s go right back to the start:

Around 18 months ago I posted a message on Twitter saying that I was interested in trying out something called airsoft.  It’s a little like paintball, but instead of firing bloody great spheres of coloured stuff at each other, you shoot small plastic BBs.  Anyway, a chap called James, who I’d never met before, responded recommending a site to try out.  I got down there a little while later and had a great time.

All this, incidentally, is irrelevant.

James set up a new company called Diabloskinz.  They provide vinyl skins for various devices.  I’d often been tempted by them, but never got around to actually trawling the site and buying one.  It was during a moment of procrastination that I stumbled up on this skin.  It’s a dragon, sitting on the toilet, reading a book.  In other words, it’s me.  In the past, James has tweeted various celebrities and TV personalities asking them if they’d like a free skin.  Of course, it works in his favour to have his products seen with these people.  Ever noticed Jake Humphrey’s iPad, and how it’s all nicely F1 branded?  Yeah, that’s a skin.

So, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I tweeted James to ask if I could have a free skin too.  In return I promised to blog about it (because I’m such a celebrity, you see).  His reply was actually more amenable than I was expecting: he wasn’t willing to give one away, but he would do a discount!  I won’t reveal the size of that discount — that’s between James and I — but to offer any discount at all was very generous of him.  I doff my cap to the kind gent.

The skin arrived within 24 hours and it looks great.  I had to spend a little time putting it on, and even then I’ve managed to make it look a little wonky (apparently I can’t do straight lines.  Go me).  It’s really personalised my phone, though.  A few people have commented on it and I’m happy to show them.  The matching wallpaper is a really nice touch, though obviously not supported by all devices (such as the Amazon Kindle).

So is it worth it?  Totally.  Its real strength, I think, would be with things which could get mixed up with other people’s, like Xbox 360 controllers and such like.  But that’s purely from a practical, “that’s mine” point of view.  Aesthetically, these are very pleasing indeed.  Hell, if it wasn’t for the fact that my Xbox is tucked away in a TV cabinet, out of sight, I’d seriously consider skinning it.  It would look epic.

So many thanks to James and co at Diabloskinz.  I promised, albeit tongue-in-cheek, that I’d blog about it, but I think it’s absolutely blog-worthy.  Since it’s gone midnight at the manor, I’ll have to take some photos at another time.  But I will take some, and I’ll update this post accordingly.

You, too, can follow James on Twitter.  He’s @diabloskinz, of course.